Strategy Roundtable with Sramana Mitra, Webinar Recording|Apr 9, 2009

Sramana Mitra continues her work with entrepreneurs in her Strategy Roundtables. Working in collaboration with INSEAD students and graduates, Sramana gives these entrepreneurs guidance in vehicle fuel monitoring, makeup brush cleaning, computer-based simulation solutions and tools, and personalized online career consulting ventures.

 

[There's a slight echo at the beginning due to one of the speaker's Skype connections, it gets resolved quickly.]

Strategy Roundtable with Sramana Mitra, Webinar Recording|Mar 25, 2009

Another Strategy Roundtable with Sramana Mita. In this webinar, Sramana consults with entrepreneurs on pitches ranging from online video, to time tracking software, to re-training job seekers to find the right green jobs, to a lingerie line for the Indian markets.

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Strategy Roundtable with Sramana Mitra, Webinar Recording|Mar 11, 2009

We had another great Strategy Roundtable webinar with Sramana Mitra on March 11, 2009. Sramana continued her work with entrepreneurs, helping them refine their pitch and improve their business ideas.

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Sramana Mitra is an entrepreneur, strategy consultant, and author of Entrepreneur Journeys. Enjoy this recording and consider joining us live for Strategy Roundtable with Sramana Mitra|Mar 25, 2009.

-k
Kevin Micalizzi, Community Manager
Dimdim Web Conferencing
e: kevin@dimdim.com
twitter: @dimdim
facebook: dimdim.com/facebook

Strategy Roundtable with Sramana Mitra, Webinar Recording - Feb 18, 2009

If you weren't able to join earlier today, here is the recording of today's Strategy Roundtable with Sramana Mitra. Five entrepreneurs had a chance to share their pitches with Sramana and get her feedback and suggestions. It was a very productive hour with great information for all entrepreneurs.

We will be continuing our guest webinar series into March, please check out what's available at our Dimdim Webinars and Events page.

Courting Fear by Alok Srivastava

My friend Alok often articulates my thoughts better than I can articulate them to myself. When I chat with him, I often say, "Yes, that is exactly how I felt but wasn't able to express it in words." Today he sent the following poem and I had that same thought. I feel obligated to share it with the world, especially with entrepreneurs, because it can help us in "courting fear".

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Courting Fear

There is more to fear, one finds, in the absence of fear.

(Such is the nature of the blindness brought about by fear.)

On overcoming fear, one finds, there is more to fear than one was able to see before.

(Such is the nature of the blindness brought about by fear.)

The conquest of fear expands one's grasp of fear producing realities.

(Such is the nature of the blindness brought about by fear.)

To see is to keep one's eyes open when the illumination produced by light is blinding.

(Such is the nature of the blindness brought about by fear.)

Fear wraps one in the security of blindness and the empty blameless bliss of ignorance.

(Such is the nature of the blindness brought about by fear.)

Those overcome by fear lose the preparative stimulation of the bouquet in a well poured glass of wine.

(Such is the nature of the blindness brought about by fear.)

Overcoming fear unblinds one to the bouquet swirling in the empty-half of the glass waiting to prepare you for the full-half.

(Such is the nature of the blindness brought about by fear.)

Fear is uncertainty's possibilities forsaken.

(Such is the nature of the blindness brought about by fear.)

Caution is fear seduced; adventure is fear reveled.

(Such is the invitation in the blindness brought about by fear.)

Fear is curiosity attempting to be digested as the shape of the future.

(Such is the invitation in the blindness brought about by fear.)

Fear is the alarm bell of curiosity and the chimes of uncertainty's possibilities.

(Such is the invitation in the blindness brought about by fear.)

Fear is the bouquet of the unknown's promises, waiting to be taken in.

(Such is the invitation in the blindness brought about by fear.)

Fear is the audit of one's unfinished education confronting the infinitude of the next moment.

(Such is the awareness in the blindness brought about by fear.)

Fear is the revelation that one's grasp of reality far exceeds the grasp of one's knowledge.

(Such is the awareness in the blindness brought about by fear.)

Fear is the crafting force of our engagement with nature.

(Such is the awareness in the blindness brought about by fear.)

Fear is curiosity without hubris.

(Such is the awareness in the blindness brought about by fear.)

- Alok Srivastava (Mar 1st, 2007)

Alok Srivastava is a biotechnology entrepreneur in San Francisco who originally trained as a biologist at MIT in Boston and as a chemist at IIT in Mumbai. If you (like me) believe that he should publish his poems please leave a comment and I will forward your thoughts to him.

Entrepreneurship and Stress

Starting my first company was easy. I was naïve and asked myself a simple question, "I have always wanted to start a business and if I don't start one now when I don't have a mortgage and kids then what are the chances that I will ever do it?" With that I started the company. Well not really. I also took the Myers Briggs test to check whether I should be an entrepreneur. The test said, and some people would agree, that the last career option I should consider is entrepreneurship. But this is what I wanted to do, so I said the appropriate cursing words to the test and set out to do what I wanted to do.

Anyways, as I was saying I was naïve. I didn't know anything about being an entrepreneur. And I am not the first or last entrepreneur to say that had I known about the difficulties that lay ahead I might not have started on the journey. The most troubling difficulty was anger. I could live with myself losing it at work. I had great partners who forgave my tantrums. But I just could not live with myself losing it at home. My wife forgave me too, but I didn't want to hurt her feelings. I tried a lot of things. I tried communicating my stresses to my wife. I ended up commuting them to her and so I shut up. And that did not help either because whether I said anything or not she always perceived my moods. Then another lady entered my life. My daughter was born. And now I just could not to be angry at home.

Things worked out. I don't know whether they worked out because of me or in spite of me but they worked out. Our company was acquired by a large company and I spent five years in a comparatively stress free environment. Then the entrepreneurial bug struck me again.

Starting my second company proved to be more difficult than the first one. I was afraid that I would start losing it at home and so I delayed my departure from the cocoon for as long as I could. Finally it became clear to me that the only reason that I was not starting my next company was that I was concerned about my mood at home. And the geek in me came up with a solution.

The solution was a spreadsheet that I call my Awareness Spreadsheet. What else do you expect from a programmer who has not programmed in nine years? Here's an extract from the first few days...

Date	Peace Index	Cause	Avg	SD	Yoga minutes	Pranayam minutes
Tuesday, February 01, 2005	10				0	0
Wednesday, February 02, 2005	10				0	0
Thursday, February 03, 2005	6				0	0
Friday, February 04, 2005	8				0	0
Saturday, February 05, 2005	10				0	0
Sunday, February 06, 2005	10				0	0
Monday, February 07, 2005	8				10	5
Tuesday, February 08, 2005	10				10	5
Wednesday, February 09, 2005	10				10	5
Thursday, February 10, 2005	2				10	5
Friday, February 11, 2005	10				10	5
Saturday, February 12, 2005	6				0	0
Sunday, February 13, 2005	10				0	0
Monday, February 14, 2005	10				10	10
Tuesday, February 15, 2005	8				10	10
Wednesday, February 16, 2005	10				10	5
Thursday, February 17, 2005	10				10	5
Friday, February 18, 2005	10				10	5
Saturday, February 19, 2005	10				10	5

The primary parameter that I track is my Peace Index. 10 stands for not getting upset all, 8 reflects getting upset but not expressing it, 6 means getting upset and expressing it; 4 symbolizes expressing it vigorously, and so on. I tracked my Peace Index over the last six months at the large company and calculated its Average and Standard Deviation. And I promised myself that I would beat those numbers by a margin.

Getting to a better Peace Index was my end goal and I wanted to start some activities that would help me reach that goal. I Googled “anger” and found this link (http://www.apa.org/topics/controlanger.htm) from the American Psychological Association. I was struck by the similarity between the kind of actions that it suggested and Yoga. For example, it recommended stretching and deep breathing. The similarities with Yoga asana and Pranayama were striking. And that spurred me to restart my Yoga practice and till date I can report that I do Yoga with 89.9% regularity. If you are like me and love data then you might want to try this just to collect the data and tell your friends I exercise with x% regularity.

Till now, my Peace Index shows that I have been able to manage my emotions fairly well. Will I be able to beat those numbers persistently? I will find out.

Year end reminiscences

Generally at the end of each year, I write an email to some of my friends telling them how my year went: the ups and lows and ask about their experiences in the year past. This year I thought I will write a blog post on this topic.

The major theme for me this year has been my work in Dimdim. When I was thinking about joining a startup many fears swelled (DD has written about this) but there was an air of excitement, of doing something new and interesting. The expectation was to create something truly usable (and change the world  :-))

But this was tempered by the fear of loosing a stable and safe career. Especially in India, where the software profession is respected, society does not understand people who leave their existing job in a truly multi-national software company for a career in a startup company. This move of mine was viewed as stupid (at best) and childish (at worst) by many. The name “Dimdim” also didn’t inspire much confidence, it was not Acme Software Solutions or InfoTel Software Services :-).

I herded my trembling thoughts together and started work in Dimdim since I saw the possibility of fulfilling a need. But over time, with my fellow-dimdimers I have grown in confidence. The response at the OSCON Demo in July where Dimdim was first unveiled showed us that we were on the right track. Then the Open Source Alpha Release in September and the stunning response (Tens of thousands of downloads in less than 100 days) we have got from the community showed us that people are waiting for a product like Dimdim. The forums posts and interaction with the Dimdim community showed us the things we are doing right and the things we have to correct. The amount of time and energy that the members of the community have put into building Dimdim is truly humbling. People have not only suggested features but also gone ahead and implemented much-needed features (LDAP integration). We have found many bugs through community reporting and Dimdim testing has been tested by the community on many platforms which were not part of the original plan.      

Right now, we are working towards the early 2007, hosted Beta release. I am sure it will not be a flawless rollout, but I am also equally sure all of you will point and prod us into correcting the mistakes that happen and ensure that Dimdim truly becomes the world’s web meeting.

Happy New Year everybody !

Entrepreneurship and Fear

Entrepreneurship and Fear

For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to be an entrepreneur. The problem was that no one in my middle-class Indian family had ever been a businessman. My family was not discouraging but the entire environment was. "Business is not for you", is the mantra I heard growing up. Get security. Get a job, preferably a "secure" government job. Don't take risks. These messages get into one's psyche. And when I finally started my first business I found myself in the clutches of fear. I searched the libraries for a book on the subject of managing entrepreneurial fear but found nothing. Luckily, during one of my regular chats with my elder brother - my friend, philosopher and guide - I told him about my fears. He mentioned a sportsperson who had his own mental ghosts and had effectively exorcised them by speaking with a psychologist.

The decision to talk to a psychologist was not an easy one. There's a certain stigma that's attached to seeing a "shrink" and I didn't want to see myself as a person who "needed help". But my fears were affecting my productivity and my pet reaction of working twice as many hours was becoming impractical. In order to win I had to overcome my fears, so off I went to a psychologist.

I remember the first meeting clearly. I entered the office and was surprised to find that it did not have a lounge - just a straight backed chair. I sat down and as far as I remember my first words were something along the lines of "I think I am pretty normal." And right away I noticed a slight roll of eyes. Very slight, but a roll none the less. I am not naming my doctor to protect doctor confidentiality :)

During our talks, which became more and more enjoyable for me, my doctor helped me identify my fears. I realized that I feared two things. First, I feared financial insecurity. One particular moment comes to mind. My daughter was going to be born in a few months and my tiny paycheck bounced. I was sitting in my office and asking myself, "What on earth are you doing? Your peers are making great salaries in this Internet boom and your tiny paycheck is bouncing while you are bringing a life to this world?" Second, I feared the unknown. I had a strictly technical background and lacked even basic understanding of business and I didn't know whether anything that I was doing was right.

After helping me identify my fears he helped me realize that they were well founded. If the business failed I was going to face financial difficulties. And I really did not know anything about business. Ultimately it came down to accepting my fears as real possibilities and not avoiding them. Unexpectedly, as soon as I acknowledged my fears, they stopped bothering me as much. I came up with the idea of a decision point- a specific date for which I set clear milestones. On that date I would reassess my situation and listen to my fears. Till then whenever I heard the voice of fear I would tell it, "I think you have a point but if I keep listening to you then you will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Let me focus on my work and I will chat with you at the decision point."

A few years later I heard Rudolf Giuliani speak at a conference. He related the story of a fireman who was off-duty on September 11. The fireman heard about the terrorist attack on the radio and he must have known about the extent of the devastation because the route he took to his fire station overlooked the towers. When he reached his station he must have known the risk he was taking because he wrote notes to his sister and mother. That day he lost his life. And through it all, he faced and managed his fears. "Courage is not the absence of fear", Giuliani said, "It is the active management of fear."

Men can do what men have done

To Babuli with love

I called my father Babuli. For some unknown reason my elder brother started calling him Babuli and then all of us called him by that name. As Dimdim's startup journey begins I find myself thinking of Babuli for I am an entrepreneur because of him.

An entrepreneur needs a certain degree of naïve self-confidence. It has to almost border on arrogance but not quite get there. And Babuli instilled that attitude in me. (Not the arrogance part that was my own doing:))

When I told my friend Marv Goldschmitt about the above he said, "Exactly! What does an entrepreneur say when you say "No" to him?" And I immediately replied "Go to hell". Point illustrated.

Most entrepreneurs will not say, "You have a great point. I must go back and re-think my business plan." He should but won't. Neither will he say, "I have the following reasons to believe that my business plan will work. So let's agree to disagree." No, most entrepreneurs will say, "Go to hell". That's the tinge of arrogance. And I have come to believe that this attitude is essential to overcome the seemingly insurmountable problems that every entrepreneur faces. He must be guided by a sense of self-confidence and optimism that he will be able to solve the problems that are going to come along.

Babuli started building my self-confidence when I was about six years old. I remember standing beside him and looking up to him as he shaved. I asked him a question and have long forgotten what the question was. But I do remember his answer - "Men can do what men have done."

Babuli was to repeat that phrase to me again and again. Even when I stumbled, Babuli's confidence in me never wavered. This confidence was not entirely based on facts. I am not very intelligent, not a very good communicator,... the list is too long to include here. And despite all these shortcomings Babuli told me and I believe, "Men can do what men have done."

When the time came to start my first company I did not think about the risk of failure. Many people had started companies and succeeded, so I thought that I could succeed as well. That was naive but that's the naïve self-confidence that an entrepreneur needs. And that was my father's gift to me. Thanks, Babuli.